PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. * POPULAR fallacies and popular wisdom form

the bulk of the pro- verbial philosophy of all ages. This differs considerably from that

preached. by Mr. 'Tupper to the evangelical ladies of our day, and which has no chance of living longer than they. The genuine proverbs of a nation embody the common experience of things common to all, in a humorous, allusive, or descriptive sentence. The humour—that quality in the form which excites a smile— differs according to the peculiarities of each nation ;—the form, I whether metaphorical or matter of fact, also differs according to the national differences ; but the subject matter itself is essentially the same in all national proverbs concerning the things which are general to mankind. For instance, concerning Love and Marriage, Friendship, Children, Friends, Fortune &c. ; the bulk of every civilized community, ancient or modern, Christian or Pagan, have always come to the same prudential conclusions. But the modern Englishman differs from the Greek or Roman in the expression of these settled conclusions—and the Italian from the Chinese. The satirical element which predominates in the form of most proverbs is various as the national humours ;—in some it is light and plea- sant, in others grim and sardonic, in some bitter and rancorous, in others contemptuous. The classification and comparison of proverbs implies great knowledge of this kind of literature. In the volume before us we find that such knowledge has been well exercised. It is not dis- played so as to excite the astonishment of a reader that "one small head should carry all" the author knows about the wise saws of our ancestors ; but it is used so as to give the reader ample means of studying their concentrated opinions on most mundane matters. Mr. Kelly has felt the great defect of a book of pro- verbs compiled in the ordinary way, viz., that no man can read it. It is almost like attempting to read through the columns of a dic- tionary. There is no natural coherence ; and like unstrung pearls, the best proverbs slip away from you for want of a string to keep them together in the mind. Mr. Kelly has devised a means of obviating this difficulty to some extent. We have read many consecutive pages of his volume with pleasure and profit. His plan is a good one. He has taken English or rather British proverbs as the ground-work. These he has classed according to their subjects. After each is inserted some necessary explanation or some interesting and illustrative comment—often correcting old standing errors. At the bottom of the page are printed the va- rious foreign proverbs which correspond with the English one cited. By this means you see at a glance the various forms or moulds of expression into which the experience of each nation has run and preserved itself for posterity to repeat and verify. For example, at the beginning of the section on Natural Character, we have as follows-

. * Proverbs of all Nations, compared, explained, and illustrated. By Walter K. Kelly, Published by Kent and Co. " What's bred in the bone will never be out of the p.a.—What is innate is not to be eradicated by force of education or self-discipline ; these may modify the outward manifestations of a man's nature, but not transmute that nature itself. What belongs to it lasts to the grave ' (Italian). The ancients had several proverbs to the same purpose, such as this one which is found in Aristophanes—' You will never make a crab walk straight for- wards'—and this Latin one, which is repeated in several modern languages : The wolf changes his coat, but not his disposition ; '—he turns grey with age. The Spaniards say he loses his teeth, but not his inclinations.' ' What is sucked in with the mother's milk runs out in the shroud' (Spanish). Horace's well-known line,- . Naturam expellas furca tameu usque recurret

Though you cast out nature with a fork, it will still return '—has very much the air of a proverb versified. The same thought is better expressed in a French line which has acquired proverbial currency

Chassez le naturel, ii revient au plop:

Drive away nature, and back it comes at a gallop.' 'I'his line is very com- monly attributed to Boileau, but erroneously. The author of it is Chau- lieu (?). The Orientals ascribe to Mehemet the saying, Believe, if thou wilt, that mountains change their places, but believe not that men change their dispositions.' "

The proverbs collected by Mr. Kelly on the subject of marriage, its antecedents and consequences, are numerous, and some of them are not a little curious. Such, for instance, is this Spanish one—" The bacon of paradise for the married man that has not repented." Does not this seem to point at some Spanish tradition analogous to the custom of Dunmow ? Of the English adage, " Better wed over the mixon than over the moor," we have the following explanation :—

"The mixon is the heap of manure in the farmyard. The proverb means that it is better not to go far from home in search of a wife—advice as old as the Greek poet Healed, who has a line to this effect : 'Marry, in prefer- ence to all other women, one who dwells near thee.' But a more specific meaning has been assigned to the English proverb by Fuller, and after him by Ray and Disraeli. They explain it as being a maxim peculiar to Cheshire, and intended to dissuade candidates for matrimony from taking the road to London, which lies over the moorland of Staffordshire. This local proverb,' says Disraeli, is a curious instance of provincial pride, per- haps of wisdom to induce the gentry of that county to form intermarriages, to prolong their own ancient families and perpetuate ancient friendships between them.' This is a mistake for the proverb is not peculiar to Cheshire, or to any part of England; Scotland has it in this shape :— .Better woo o'er midden nor o'er moss. And in Germany they give the same advice, and also assign a reason for it, saying, Marry over the mixon, and you will know who and what she is.' The same principle is expressed in different forms in other languages, e. g., Your wife and your nag get from a neighbour' (Italian). He that goes far to marry goes to be deceived or to deceive' Spanish). The politic 'Lord Burleigh seems to have regarded this going far to deceive' as a very proper thing to be done for the ad- vancement of a man's fortune. In his 'Advice to his Son' he says, If thy estate be good, i match near home and at leisure ; if weak, far off and quickly.' There s an ugly cunning in that word quickly. Burleigh's ad- vice is quite in the spirit of the French fortune hunter's adage, In mar- riage cheat who can.' "

"Don't buy a pig in a poke" leads to the mention of some curious philological facts :—

" A poke is a pouch or bag. This word, which is still current in the northern counties of England, corresponds to the French poche, as pocket' does to the diminutive poochette. Bouge and bougette are other forma of the same word ; and from these we get budget,' which, curiously enough, has gone back from us to its original owners with a newly-acquired meaning, for the French Minister of Finance presents his annual Budget like our own Chancellor of the Exchequer. The French say, Acheter chat en pooh° :' To buy a cat in a poke,' or game bag ; and the meaning of that proverb is explained by this other one, To buy a cat for a hare.' So also the Dutch, the Italian, d:c. The pig of the English proverb is chosen for the sake of the alliteration at some sacrifice of sense."

"In for a penny, in for a pound," "Over shoes, over boots," and the like, have many equivalents which maybe used either as encouragements to the " facilis descensus Averni," or as warnings against it.

"'There is nothing like being bespattered for making one defy the slough' (French). These proverbs are as true in their physical as in their moral application. Persons who have ventured a little way will venture further. Persons whose characters are already sullied will not be very care- ful to preserve them from tallier discredit. When Madame de Comuel remonstrated with a court lady on certain improprieties of conduct, the latter exclaimed, ' Eh ! madame, laissez-moi jouir de ma mauvaise r6puta- tion ' (" Do let me enjoy the benefit of my bad reputation"). It is the first shower that wets' (Italian). It is all the same whether a man has both legs in the stocks or one' (German). Honest Launce would have one that would be a dog indeed, to be as it were a dog in all things.'"

The adage, " Quod volumus facile credimus " remains to this day a monopoly of the learned classes. The abstract form in which its import is clothed unfits it for the taste of proverbial philosophers, who delight in sensuous imagery ; but its spirit is well expressed in the popular saying, "As the fool thinks, the bell tinks," which we find explained thus :— " We are all prone to interpret facts and tokens in accordance with our own inclinations and habits of thought. It was not the voice of the bells that first inspired young Whittington with hopes of attaining civic honours ; it was because he had conceived such hopes already that he was able to hear so distinctly the words, 'Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London.' 'People make the bells say whatever they have a mind' (French). In a Latin sermon on widowhood by Jean Paulin, a monk of Cluny of the fifteenth century, there is a story which Rabelais has told again in his own way. Raulin's version is this :— "A widow consulted her parish priest about her entering into a second marriage. She told him she stood in need of a helpmate and protector, and that her journeyman, for whom she had taken a fancy, was industrious and well acquainted with her late husband's trade. Very well,' said the priest, you had better marry him." And yet' rejoined the widow, I am afraid to do it, for who knows but I may find my servant become my master ? ' Well, then,' said the priest, don't have him.' 'But what shall I do ? said the widow; 4 the-business left me by my poor dear departed husband

is more than I can manage by myself." Marry him, then,' said the priest. Ay, but suppose he turns out a scamp,' said the widow ; he may get hold of my property, and run through it all.' 'Don't have him,' said the priest. Thus the dialogue went on, the priest always agreeing

in the last opinion expressed by the widow, until at length, seeing that her mind was actually made up to marry the journeyman, he told her to con- salt the church bells, and they would advise her best what to do. The bells were rang, and the widow heard them distinctly say, 'do take your man ; do take your man.' Accordingly she went home and married him forthwith; but it was not long before he thrashed her soundly, and made her feel that Instead of his mistress she had become his servant. Back she went to the priest, cursing the hour when she had been credulous enough to act upon Ha advice. 'Good woman,' said he, am afraid you did not rightly nn- deretand what the bells said to you.' He rang them again, and then the poor woman heard clearly, but too late, these warning words : Do not take him ; do not take him.' " Mr. Kelly remarks in his preface that in many instances pro- verbs "have helped to preserve the memory of events, manners, negro, and ideas, some of which have left little other record of their existence." The double meaning which seems to be in- volved in the proverb, "Save a thief from the gallows, and he will be the first to out your throat," is a case in point. The ob- vious moral here implied is the ingratitude of the vicious ; but along with this there seems to have gone a superstitions dread of occult influences. Mr. Kelly illustrates this by the following extract from a Belgian newspaper, the Constitutionnel of Mons, of Inly 4, l856 'The day before yesterday a man hanged himself at Wasmes. Another man chanced to come upon him before life was extinct, and cut him down in a state of insensibility. Presently up came some women, who clamor- ously protruded against the rashness, not of the would-be suicide, but of his rescuer, and assured the latter that his only chance of escaping the dangers to which his imprudent humanity exposed him was to hang the poor wretch up again. The man was so alarmed that he was actually proceeding to do as they advised him, when fortunately the burgomaster arrived just in time to prevent that act of barbarous stupidity.' "This incident will at once remind the reader of the wreck scene in The Pirate. Mordaunt Merton is hastening to save Cleveland, when Bryce Snails-

foot thus remonstrates with him Are you mad ? You that have lived sae lang in Zetland to risk the saving of a drowning man ? Wet ye not, it you bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you some capital in-

jury r Although we do not suppose that many persons would read through this volume at once, we feel sure that every one who begins it will desire to read it to the end. This is not to be pre- dicated of any other book of National Proverbs we know, and is awing entirely, to the amount of cultivated thought and sensible comment which the compiler has put into his work. In fact, he has made himself a readable author on an unreadable though im- portant subject. He is alive to the fact that the shrewdness and worldly wisdom of the unlearned classes is represented properly in the pithy, strong sentences which are stereotyped among them, and the accuracy of which no one among them presumes to ques- tion. There seems a sort of divine right in a proverb to rank as a truth ; when, in most eases, it is only one side of a truth which it enunciates—or only a very low standard of virtue which it sets up. This is inevitably the ease. We must remember that for the most part the proverbs of a nation are not made by its nobles, its great moralists, or its religious leaders. They spring up in the great mass of the people who think little, and are not given to drawing nice distinctions ; but are rough and ready at reasoning from what they know. The excellence of a proverb consists not in its absolute truth but its strong vulgar expression of that portion of truth most obvious to the vulgar mind.